Mr Vigne, whose opinions on this subject deserve greater weight from his being himself a lawyer, as well as from the generally unprejudiced tone of his pleasing work, says, "the authorities of the supreme court are intended as the safeguards of the union ;" and he adds, justly, "that the independence of this court, and, in fact, of all the federal judiciary, may be termed the sheet anchor of the United States."

The late decision of the court in favour of the Cherokee Indians, and reversing a decree lately obtained by the state of Georgia, cannot but add to the dignified and impartial character that has ever distinguished the proceedings of that eminent body, and gives additional confidence, if any were wanting, in the future firmness of a court, whose principles are as unbiassed by selfish as by party feelings.

CHAPTER VI.

Misrepresentations of the domestic manners of the Americans.Many of the peculiarities of the social system of the United States not attributable exclusively to the republican form of government.-Advantages and defects compared of American and English systems.

It was not my intention to have touched upon the social system of the United States, or the effects produced upon it by the nature of its government; it is but incidentally connected with the object of these remarks. A late work, however, upon the "Domestic Manners of the Americans," has presented such a very unfaithful picture of society in the United States, that a few observations on the subject may be necessary. It is true that the authoress describes but the manners and habits of a portion of the community, and of a section of the country but lately emerged from the state of an almost uninhabited wilderness; while her candid declaration of dislike and ill-will towards the Americans and their institutions, political or social, sufficiently accounts for the satirical, clever, but highly coloured caricatures in which the writer indulges. But the general reader, amused by the spirited tone of

acerbity and sarcastic talent with which the pictures are drawn, and totally unacquainted with the country described, does not examine the justice of the representation, as applied to the upper classes, particularly in the larger and older capitals, and mistakes it for a general outline of American society. This impression is fostered by the notice in the Quarterly Review, which carefully keeps out of view Mrs Trollope's raptures at New York, and even at Washington, in which places, however, it does not appear that she, from whatever cause, ever was received in the higher circles. Of Boston and New England, generally, which others* describe as, par excellence, the seat of ultra aristocracy in the United States, the work does not speak at all.

To estimate justly the fidelity of the writer's satire as a tableau général of American society in the United States, let us imagine an American, or any other foreigner, coming to England, and "locating" himself in the fens of Lincolnshire, or in some remote village of Lancashiret or Yorkshire, and giving the language, tone, and manners of the

* Vide Vigne, Vol. II. p. 242.

† Mr M'Gregor says, speaking of the United States, “no gentleman who is commonly polite will meet with any thing but kind treatment in America; and as to the peculiarities of their tongue, I need only observe that I have never met with an American, however humble, whose language was not perfectly plain and intelligible to

society that he might find there as a fair specimen of good company in England; or lodging at Wapping, or in some obscure part of the Tower Hamlets, and giving the "vells" and "vats," the "osses" and "himages" of some of the cockney population as a fair sample of London manners! He might even add, "I give this as a specimen of the manners and habits of the greater part of the community," with literal truth, as doubtless, numerically, the major part of the inhabitants of the metropolis do not distinguish themselves as puristes in language; but would it be strictly fair to convey such an impression of the general manners of England, if a faithful picture were intended? The late publication of the tour of prince Püchler Muskeau is a fulsome eloge of English usages compared with Mrs Trollope's account of American manners; yet it has not escaped censure neither the most gentle nor argumentative.

If the foreign traveller whom I am supposing, in addition to his bad choice of residence, should evince the equally bad taste of visiting England under the auspices of Mr Carlile or the "Rev." Mr Taylor, and come to pass some time under their roof, it would not contribute to render his subsequent ac

me; while I can scarcely understand half what the country people say within a few miles of me in Lancashire," &c.-Vide M'Gregor, Vol. I. p. 39.

cess to the best society more ready. It was doubtless unfavourable to the opportunities which the authoress herself could of course have easily commanded, of personally judging of the high classes of society in America, that some of her "philosophical friend's" "fanatical”* and "startling theories" were highly unpopular in the United States, and an intimacy with that lady was, possibly, not the best avenue to the society of the "patrician few" whose manners are not described by the authoress.

In Miss Wright's lectures, according to the Quarterly Reviewt and the newspaper reports upon them, she advocated the suppression of all religions, and the abolition of all such restraints upon the natural impulses, as the institution of marriage, &c. &c.

A strong prejudice exists in America, notwithstanding the supposed want of respect for all established customs, in favour of these antiquated institutions, and against the doctrines promulgated by Miss Wright; and, in a country where such a feeling is predominant, and where the women of the upper classes are accused of being prudishly sensitive

* The Quarterly, in reviewing Mrs Trollope's book, thus designates Miss Wright's attempts to preach down religion, marriage, &c.; while the poor German Prince is called a "blasphemer," a "scoffer," &c.-Vide Quarterly Review, Nos. XCII., ХСІІІ., 1832.

"Miss F. Wright, lecturer itinerant against Christianity, matrimony, and all other old-fashioned delusions," &c.-Ibid.